When someone told me there is a gangster sort of series out there starring Sylvester Stallone I knew that I was going to go and see it before they even told me anything else about it. "Sly" is one of those guys that I cant help but have a soft spot for even though most of the films he has ever been in have been rather sub-par action films. He is an icon because of how big of a role he was in just about anyone's life in the 80's and early 90's and I think fans flock towards anything he does because of this.
In Tulsa King we have an interesting and somewhat believable story about mob life post prison-release, but there are a few crucial mistakes I think the series makes that actually take away from the overall story and entertainment value.
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I want to start of by saying that Stallone looks absolutely fantastic for a man in his 70's who almost certainly spent a great deal of his lives taking steroids. Hell, he might still be on them now. His physique, his hairline, and the rather sparse amount of wrinkles are definitely done with the help of a lot of cosmetic doctors but whatever man! The due looks great considering his age.
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The story here is that Dwight Manfredi who is sometimes referred to by people at "The General." The series begins with him being released from prison after doing a 25-year stint for murder. While he had a lot of information on the other mob members he kept his mouth shut the entire time he was in prison. Upon his release he expects to be treated like a king, but is less than enthusiastic about how he is going to be rewarded. Instead of being reinstated at the top of the mob family, he is being sent out to pasture and is given free reign over Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In the first episode we are given an impression that the entire series is going to be as gritty and emotional as it is in the starting part of the first scenes and I wish they had stuck with that because it was really good. This is where one of my first criticisms of the show begins. Instead of sticking with gritty and kind of dark the show quickly becomes goofy and more of a feel-good comedy than anything else.
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We don't even get that far into the show before it becomes more comedy than drama. This happens as soon as Dwight walks into a weed dispensary and is amazed at how little security exists and how that this is illegal at all. When he went into prison you couldn't sell weed at all, now it is being done in a retail environment.
These jokes about Dwight not understanding modern technology and ways of life like weed dispensaries existing stays funny only for a little while. For instance he has no idea what Uber is when he is trying to get a taxi. I think even in prison you would know what Uber is. Those guys have internet access. They overuse this naivete mixed with tough-guy situation and unfortunately, it continues well beyond just the opening scenes.
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As things progress Dwight ends up becoming a bit of a father figure to the mostly male underlings that he accumulates and this representation is the antithesis of what we would expect from an ex mob boss. I get that it is part of the story but that just isn't how mobs work. Also, the way in which Dwight just magically never faces any sort of police problems with the various illegal and many times in front of a ton of people in public, he never faces any consequences for this even though the actual mob, that he works for, has kind of disavowed him.
I don't need the show to be 100% realistic, but if you get into a giant brawl in a parking lot in the State Fair parking lot, someone is going to notice and there are going to be consequences beyond a bump on your head.
They telegraph where the season is heading pretty early on and even though I haven't watched the conclusion, I can already tell where it is going and how it will end. I'm not going to spoil this because I still think that this show is worth seeing even though you can tell from any show that has a "previously on" portion that takes 2 minutes at the start of every episode, that the producers don't really seem to have a great deal of faith in this formula.
Should I watch it?
Despite the fact that I am kind of getting tired of how this drama is turning into mostly a comedy I still think there is some good in this show and it is at least worth a look. I will say this though: If Stallone wasn't in this, I don't think it ever would have gotten off the ground. This isn't a good thing when these sorts of situations arise because we realize that the writers actually can and do get a bit lazy when they realize the audience is there for one reason only... Stallone.
It's worth seeing and if they can turn it around and make it a bit more gritty I think my opinion of it could get back into the green section. For now, and I haven't even finished season one, they are kind of starting to lose me. This is the most directly-in-the-middle I have been in quite some time as far as my overall opinion is concerned.
